Artists are invited to bring moving imagery, either pre-recorded or created live, for Video Melee in Gallery Aferro’s main gallery. Video Melee will go on from 5/1 till 5/28. The main gallery is 19 feet wide by 170 feet long. Email to express your intent as soon as possible submit@aferro.org, bring equipment and imagery to 73 Market St Newark NJ.

3) This will go on until all space and available electrical power is exhausted.

4) Enjoy the opening reception on 5/1.

5) After 5/28, remove your equipment.

Video Melee is a democratic experiment, less about claims to “firsts” than about the enactment of small rituals and gestures in downtowns everywhere.

Some possible themes for use as points of departure:

Liquid Crystal, meaning the ubiquity of devices with screens, more specifically the modern usage of screen-equipped devices in a wide variety of nondomestic, nontheatrical contexts, including public conveyance such as metro subways and long-distance charter buses. This nondomestic usage creates views of the silent or near-silent gestures of actors and dancers displayed on small portable screen/player devices held by the device owner, who wears headphones.

Plenitude and Comparative Deprivation, such as in imagery, in attention spans, in inexpensive consumer grade equipment, in screen size and concurrent aspirational spending, and in the sometimes-vacuous language of open calls for artistic participation.